Form III Verbs

Form III verbs are characterized by an alif placed between the first two radicals. For example قابَلَ, شاهَدَ, , and حاوَلَ are all Form III verbs. In the past tense these verbs conjugate like all the other verbs you have seen. In the present tense they have a voweling pattern similar to that for Form II verbs. Below is the verb يُقابِلُ , قابَلَ (“to meet,” “to interview”), conjugated in the present tense.

Plural

Dual

Singular

نُقابِلُ

نَحْنَ

تُقابِلانِ

أنتُما

أُقابِلُ

أنا

تُقابِلونَ

أنتُم

يُقابِلانِ

هما (m)

تُقابِلُ

أنتَ

تُقابِلْنَ

أنتُنَّ

تُقابِلانِ

هما (f)

تُقابِلينَ

أنتِ

يُقابِلونَ

هم

يُقابِلُ

هو

يُقابِلْنَ

هنَّ

تُقابِلُ

هي

You should see that the vowel on the prefix is always a dhamma and that the stem vowel is always a kasra. This is the same as for Form II verbs.

The jussive and the subjunctive are the same for Form III as for all other forms. Therefore I am not going to list them here.

The command conjugations for Form III are also similar to those for Form III. We take the jussive and then drop the prefix. We are left with a word beginning with a consonant and followed by a vowel, so We already have the command and do not need a command prefix. For example, for أنتَ the jussive is تُقابِلْ . We drop تُ the and are left with قابِلْ which is the command. Here are the command conjugations for Form III.

Command

Pronoun

قابِلْ

أنتَ

قابِلي

أنتِ

قابِلا

أنتما

قابِلوا

انتم

قابِلْنَ

انتنَّ

The active participle is of the pattern مُفاعل as in مُقابل . The passive participle is مُفاعَل as in مُقابَل. The primary verbal noun pattern is مُفاعَلة as in مُقابَلة. A secondary verbal noun pattern is discussed below.

Hollow Verbs

Hollow verbs in Form III are regular just like those in Form II. If the middle radical is a و, it will appear as a strong consonant. The verb حَاوَلَ. is an example. The same is true for the ي , as in the verb عايَنَ Just as in Form II, there is never any shortening of the middle radical.

Assimilated Verbs

Assimilated verbs in Form III are regular in every way. The و never disappears. For example واصل ,يواصل.

Doubled Verbs

Doubled verbs are extremely rare in Form III and will not be treated in this book.

Defective Verbs

Defective verbs in Form III work just as their counterparts do in Form II. There is only one way to conjugate them in the perfect, and only one way in each of the imperfect moods, just like Form II. Below is the verb ينادي , نادى meaning “to call,” conjugated for the past tense and the imperfect indicative.

Past Tense

Plural

Dual

Singular

نادَيْنا

نَحْنَ

نادَيْتُما

أنتُما

نادَيْتُ

أنا

نادَيْتُم

أنتُم

نادَيا

هما (m)

نادَيْتَ

أنتَ

نادَيْتُنَّ

أنتُنَّ

نادَيتا

هما (f)

نادَيْتِ

أنتِ

نادَوا

هم

نادَى

هو

نادَيْنَ

هنَّ

نادَتْ

هي

Present Tense

Plural

Dual

Singular

نُنادي

نَحْنَ

تُناديانِ

أنتُما

أُنادي

أنا

تُناديانِ

أنتُم

يُناديانِ

هما (m)

تُنادي

أنتَ

تُنادينَ

أنتُنَّ

تُناديانِ

هما (f)

تُنادينَ

أنتِ

يُنادونَ

هم

يُنادي

هو

يُنادينَ

هنَّ

تُنادي

هي

I hope you can discern from the conjugations above that defectives in Form III conjugate in both tenses just like the verb يَجري , جرى You will see in the next chapter that Form IV defectives also conjugate like يَجري , جرى .

As you might guess, the jussive of Form III defectives will be derived in the same way as the jussive of Form II defectives, as will the command conjugations. See below.

The Jussive

Plural

Dual

Singular

نُنادِ

نَحْنَ

تُناديا

أنتُما

أُنادِ

أنا

تُنادوا

أنتُم

يُناديا

هما (m)

تُنادِ

أنتَ

تُنادينَ

أنتُنَّ

تُناديا

هما (f)

تُنادي

أنتِ

يُنادوا

هم

يُنادِ

هو

يُنادينَ

هنَّ

تُنادِ

هي

Commands

Command

Pronoun

نادِ

أنتَ

نادي

أنتِ

نادِيا

أنتما

نادوا

انتم

نادينَ

انتنَّ

The verbal noun of نادى is مُناداة.

The active participle is مُنادٍ and the passive participle is مُناديّ . These are just the same as in Form II.

Notes on Form III

Form III verbs are transitive and often express the attempt to do the action described by the Form I root. Thus, قاتَلَ means “to fight” from the root قتل mean “to kill.” Note that the verb حَاوَلَ means “to attempt.”

Many Form III verbs involve doing the action described by the Form I verb directly to some one else. For example, كاتَبَ means “to correspond with someone,” from the root كتب meaning “to write.” شارك means “to participate with someone” in the doing of something, from the root شرك meaning “to share” with someone or “to become a partner with someone.”

Form III verbs also have a secondary verbal noun pattern. The pattern is فِعال and sometimes exists side by side with the primary pattern given above. Sometimes this secondary pattern is preferred or even the only one used. Sometimes the two verbal nouns have different meanings, but usually this is not the case. Here are some common verbs for which the secondary pattern of the verbal noun is often used.

Verbal Noun

Meaning

Verb

كِفاح

to struggle

كافَحَ

جِهاد

to struggle

جاهَدَ

قِتال

to fught

قاتَلَ

نِداء

to call

نادى

نِضال

to struggle

ناضَلَ

صِراع

to struggle

صارَعَ

These verbs also have the primary pattern for their verbal nouns. You will see both patterns. In case you are interested, جِهاد is the term you often hear translated as “holy war” by the news media, and indeed it does sometimes have that meaning as a technical term in Islamic studies. However, since it is against Federal Communications Commission regulations for newscasters ever to pronounce an Arabic word correctly, you have probably heard the word pronounced something like “jeeehad,” as in heehaw.

You have now studied Forms I-III. You are actually getting close to learning all 10 forms, since, as you see, the derived forms are much easier to master than Form I. The following exercise will drill you on Form III as well as on Forms I and II. Pay careful attention to the context. Since nothing will be voweled, Forms I and II will often look the same. Form III verbs, because of the alif, should stand out and be easily recognized. I will talk more about context in Chapter 4 and again later in this text.

After you do drill 32, go on to the next section of this chapter. PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE NEXT SECTION. It will give you the only conjugations for Arabic verbs which you have not yet had, the conjugations for the passive voice.